CV

Education

Ph.D in Computer Science, Affective Computing, Clemson University, 2015
M.S in Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, 2006
B.S. in Computer Engineering, Auburn University, 2003

Technology Skills

Skills	and	Languages
XHTML	C	C++	C#	Typescript
Java	Javascript	JQuery	PHP	Perl
Python	Docker	CVS	Subversion	Git
Windows XP-10	Linux	OS X	Lisp	Quick Basic
Golang	Kubernetes	Basic	Ruby	LaTeX
Shell Scripting	AngularJS	Visual Basic	Visual C++	Visual C#
Nodejs	Angular	web2py	Guix	LLMs

Work Experience

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at University of Miami Health System

2025-2026 Research Fellow and AI expert

Lead research into use of LLMs and VLMs to support the practice of eye clinicians.
Use python research stack for neural network evaluation and benchmarking

GeneNetwork at UTHSC

: 2022-2025 Research Fellow and Contractor

Develop optimal way to improve GeneNetwork and UTHSC genetics, genomics and informatics research with affective, human-centered computing and AI.
Develop and implement AI/ML/Causal research for GeneNetwork project
AI support for Panorama grant

Strathmore University @iLabAfrica Research Center

: 2020-2022 Research and Academic Director

Initiate masters degree program in Data Science and Analytics (DSA)
Accepted initial cohort into DSA program
Teach python to DSA students
Teach Advanced AI & Machine Learning to computer science PhDs
Technical and professional advisor for onsite professional training cohort
Published a journal paper and won two grants

AfroValley: 2021 Software Architect

2010-2019

Solomon Ventures LLC & Tint Right Colour Enterprise

2019 Solution/System Architecting, Development, and Consulting

Architecture developed for a revolutionary housing portal for Kenya, by Kenyans.

Techno Brain Group LLC

2019 Product Manager, Identity Management (IDM) Business Unit

Developed a new architecture to revamp twelve (12) year old software offering.
Lead the development of a proof of concept implementation of the architecture, personally building several services.
Led interaction with client, a country technology representative in the office of the president.
Consulted, planned and tested migration of company wide software DevOPs.

IBM Research

2016-2018 Research Scientist

Investigate identity and security on blockchain using biometrics.
Research and implementation of state-of-the-art cancelable biometric techniques to create a pastoral identity solution to aide developing and war torn countries with emergency identity management.

2015-2016 Research Post-doc

Further explored computer vision techniques for tracking and uniquely identifying dark-skinned children in a classroom under hardware and network resource constraints.
Published patent.

2015 Research Intern

Implemented and demoed a real-time computer vision application to track dark-skinned children in a classroom under hardware and network resource constraints.

Clemson University

2009-2015 Graduate Researcher

Research, development and publishing in Affective computing, human centered computing and biometrics
Organize and mentor research experience for undergraduates program
Research lab list: Affective Computing (AC) Lab Human Centered Computing (HCC) Lab, Biometric and Pattern Recognition (BPR) Lab
Create a platform to support teacher’s reflective practice in the classroom based on student engagement
Develop a grammer using voice XML to enable vocal interaction for an online shopping app
Developed an Amazon-like voice-enabled website to help the elderly shop more easily
Research and improve 2.5D finger surface recognition using computational intelligence
Research and publish on periocular biometric identification in the visible and infrared spectra

Graduate Teacher

Teach class and lead laboratory on computing fundamentals

Publications

Pangenome-informed Language Models for Synthetic Genome Sequence Generation

P. Huang, F. Charton, J.M. Schmelzle, S.S. Darnell, P. Prins and E. Garrison, "Pangenome-Informed Language Models for Synthetic Genome Sequence Generation," 2025 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM), Wuhan, China, 2025, pp. 5025-5033, doi: 10.1109/BIBM66473.2025.11356310.

Creating a biomedical knowledge base by addressing GPT inaccurate responses and benchmarking context

Darnell SS, Overall RW, Guarracino A et al. Creating a biomedical knowledge base by addressing GPT inaccurate responses and benchmarking context. Open Res Africa 2025, 8:12 (https://doi.org/10.12688/openresafrica.15854.1)

GlaucoRAG: A Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Model for Expert-Level Glaucoma Assessment

Aminan M, Darnell SS, Delsoz M, Nabavi A, Wright C, Jerkins B, Yousefi S. GlaucoRAG: A Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Model for Expert-Level Glaucoma Assessment. [preprint] medRxiv. 2025 Jul 7:2025.07.03.25330805. doi: 10.1101/2025.07.03.25330805. PMID: 40672509; PMCID: PMC12265780.

3 Stages of a Pan-African Identity Framework for Establishing Self-Sovereign Identity with Blockchain

Darnell SS and Sevilla J (2021) 3 Stages of a Pan-African Identity Framework for Establishing Self-Sovereign Identity With Blockchain. Front. Blockchain 4:631640. doi: 10.3389/fbloc.2021.631640

Secure one-time biometric tokens for non-repudiable multi-party transactions

K. Nandakumar, N. Ratha, S. Pankanti, and S. S. Darnell, “Secure one-time biometric tokens for non-repudiable multi-party transactions,” in 9th International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security, ser. WIFS ’17, Rennes, France: IEEE, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8267654/.

Towards blockchain-enabled school information hub

N. Bore, S. Karumba, J. Mutahi, S. S. Darnell, C. Wayua, and K.Weldemariam, “Towards blockchain-enabled school information hub,” in Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ser. ICTD ’17, Lahore, Pakistan: ACM, 2017, 19:1–19:4, ISBN: 978-1-4503-5277-2. DOI: 10.1145/3136560.3136584.

Chapter 9 - Affective Computing: Historical Foundations, Current Applications, and Future Trends

S. B. Daily, M. T. James, D. Cherry, et al., Chapter 9 - Affective Computing: Historical Foundations, Current Applications, and Future Trends, M. Jeon, Ed. San Diego: Academic Press, 2017, pp. 213–231, ISBN: 978-0-12-801851-4. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128018514000094

Engageme: The design and implementation of a reflective tool for evaluating student engagement

Shelby Solomon Darnell, “Engageme: The design and implementation of a reflective tool for evaluating student engagement,” Clemson University All Dissertations, vol. 2015, 1790 May 2015.

EngageMe: Designing a Visualization Tool Utilizing Physiological Feedback to Support Instruction

M.T. James, S.B. Daily, T. Roy, and S.S. Darnell, “Engageme: Designing a visualization tool utilizing physiological feedback to support instruction,” Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning, vol. 10, 2 2015.

Human-Computer Interfaces for Speech Applications

Shelby Solomon Darnell, N. Mack, H. Alnizami, et al., Computing Handbook, 3rd ed. T. Gonzalez, J. Diaz-Herrera, and A. Tucker, Eds. CRC Press, 2014, ch. Human-Computer Interfaces for Speech Applications, 92:1–92:15. [Online]. Available: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781439898536/chapters/10.1201%5C%2Fb16812-10

EngageME: A tool to simplify the conveyance of complicated data

S. S. Darnell, “Engageme: A tool to simplify the conveyance of complicated data,” in CHI ’14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Toronto, Canada, 2014. [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2574765.

A Participatory Design Process for Developing a Tool to Visualize Classroom Engagement

T. Roy, M. T. James, A. Gupta, Darnell Shelby Solomon, and S. Daily, “A participatory design process for developing a tool to visualize classroom engagement,” in Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS), 2013.

Understanding Privacy and Trust Isues in a Classroom Affective Computing System Deployment

S. Daily, D. Myers, Shelby Solomon Darnell, T. Roy, and M. James “Understanding privacy and trust issues in a classroom affective computing system deployment,” in Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 419--423.

Human and machine performance on periocular biometrics under near-infrared light and visible light

Locus of control in coversational agent design: Effects on older users’ interactivity and social presence

V. Chattaraman, W. Kwon, J. Gilbert, and S. S. Darnell, “Locus of control in conversational agent design: Effects on older users interactivity and social presence,” in Twelth International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2012), Santa Cruz, CA, Sep. 2012.

Accessible voting: one machine, one vote for everyone

J. Gilbert, W. Johnson-Stokes, Shelby Solomon Darnell, J. Ekandem, H. Alnizami, and A. M. Martin, “Accessible voting: One machine, one vote for everyone,” in ACM CHI ’11 Video Presentation, Vancouver, Canada, May 2011. [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1979549.

MyDash: The biometric digital dashboard

Shelby Solomon Darnell, I. Alvarez, J. J. Ekandem, D. L. Woodard, and J. E. Gilbert, “Mydash: The biometric digital dashboard,” in Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces for Automotive Applications (MIAA’11) organized at the 2011 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI’11), Palo Alto, CA, Feb. 2011, pp. 53–56.

Alleviating Escape Panic using Evolutionary Intelligence

S. S. Darnell, “Alleviating escape panic using evolutionary intelligence,” Auburn University Theses and Dissertations, May 2006. [Online]. Available: http://etd.auburn.edu/handle/10415/495.

GENEVAC: Evolving Exits for Evacuation Models via Steady-State Genetic Search

Carnahan, B., Muhdi, R., Fu, S.-G., Darnell, S., Davis, J., Dozier, G., Smith, A. (2005). “GENEVAC: Evolving Exits for Evacuation Models Via Steady-State Genetic Search,” Technical Report: Auburn University CSSE05-06, May 18, 2005.

Patents

2018 Oct 18 - US20180300830A1 - Configuring classroom physical resources
2018 Nov 11 - US20180315145A1 - Managing school systems on a blockchain
2019 US 2019/0378142 A1 - Biometric token for Blockchain
2020/2021 (Applied/Granted) – US10922588B2 - Identification and/or verification by a consensus network using sparse parametric representations of biometric images
2018/2020 (Applied/Granted) – US10713963B2 - IManaging lifelong learner events on a Blockchain

May 12, 2026

Service and leadership

Organizer - Mempang2023/2024

Awards, Grants \& Honors

Year	Year/Month	Type	Description
2020	Dec	Award	United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) East Africa Blockchain Hackathon, Best Hyperledger Implementation
2015	Nov	Honor	Research Post-Doc with IBM Research Headquarters in Yorktown Heights, NY
2015	Jun	Honor	Research Scientist Internship with IBM Research Africa
2015	May	Award	PhD in Computer Science
2014	Jan	Award	Scholarship for CHI Doctoral Consortium
2013		Award	Clemson University School of Computing Outstanding PhD Student
2013	Aug	Award	Southern Region Education Board (SREB) Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2012		Honor	Induction into Alpha chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society
2010		Award	Clemson University Alumni Doctoral Fellowship
2015	2015	Award	Clemson University Graduate School Fellowship
2010	2009	Award	PhD Fellowship to Purdue University Computer Technology and Information Department
2002	2001	Award	Undergrad Scholarship to Auburn University by Alabama Power Foundation
2002	2001	Award	Undergrad Scholarship to Auburn University by William F. and Brenda W. Hayes
2001		Honor	National Honor Society Induction - Tau Sigma at Auburn University

SSD

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